Roosevelt on ancestry and common naval training

Roosevelt's argument for professional training sits alongside his racial assumptions. His example of an American warship includes American-born sailors, Scandinavians, Germans, men from the British Isles, and sailors of other backgrounds. Annapolis education and subsequent service gave officers with different family origins a common professional formation. Service under those officers also shaped their crews. Among men he regarded as brave and capable, he argued that thorough practical preparation mattered far more in battle than ancestry.